y weights, was beaten in the
almost herculean task, and he knew at heart that Don had struggled
bravely to the very last, before he had given in.

But even then Don responded to Jem's appeal, and ceased paddling, to
make three or four steady strokes.

"That's it! Brave heart! Well done, Mas' Don. We shall manage it yet.
A long, steady stroke--that's it. Don't give up. You can do it; and
when you're tired, I'll help you. Well done--well done. Hah!"

Jem uttered a hoarse cry, and then his voice rose in a wild appeal for
help, not for self, but for his brave young companion.

"Boat! Boat!" he cried, as he heard Don, deaf to his entreaties, begin
the wild paddling action again; and he passed his arm beneath his neck,
to try and support him.

But there was no reply to his wild hail. The boats were out of hearing,
and the next minute the strangling water was bubbling about his lips,
choking him as he breathed it in; and with the name of his wife on his
lips, poor Jem caught Don in a firm grip with one hand, as he struck
wildly out with the other.

Four or five steady strokes, and then his arm seemed to lose its power,
and his strokes were feeble.

"Mas' Don," he groaned; "I did try hard; but it's all over. I'm dead
beat, too."

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

FRIENDLY ATTENTIONS.

A peculiar pale light played and flashed from the surface of the black
water which was being churned up by the desperate struggles of the
drowning pair. It was as if myriads of tiny stars started into being
where all was dark before, and went hurrying here and there, some to the
surface, others deep down into the transparent purity of the sea.

A minute before Jem Wimble had kept command of himself, and swam as a
carefully tutored man keeps himself afloat; that minute passed, all
teaching was forgotten in a weak, frantic struggle with the strangling
water which closed over their heads.

A few moments, during which the phosphorescent tiny creatures played
here and there, and then once more the two helpless and nearly exhausted
fugitives were beating the surface, which flashed and sent forth lambent
rays of light.

But it was not there alone that the phosphorescence of the sea was
visible.

About a hundred yards away there was what seemed to be a double line of
pale gold liquid fire changing into bluish green, and between the lines
of light something whose blackness was greater than the darkness of the
sea or night. There was